A mayday was heard from the boat at about 11:15 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Coast Guard crews in boats and aircraft found no sign of Drayton or the boat following two dozen separate search patterns, totaling more than 6,330 square statute miles.

The body of Drayton's crewmate, Merele Rubert of Smithville, was found early Monday by a helicopter that had been sent to look for the boat about 30 miles off the coast.

An inflated, empty life raft and an empty life ring were recovered, authorities said.

"The decision to suspend a Coast Guard search and rescue case is never an easy one," said Capt. Ted Harrop, deputy commander of Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay, in Philadelphia. "But, at this time, we feel that we have done everything we possibly could to find Mr. Drayton and the fishing vessel Mary James."

More than 100 commercial fishermen from New Jersey have perished at sea since 1931, the earliest date for which dependable records could be found.

Within days of each other in 1999, two clamming boats based in Point Pleasant Beach sank, killing eight crew members. Those disasters led to the unveiling of a fishermen's memorial along the Manasquan Inlet, between Manasquan and Point Pleasant Beach.

It's the channel out to sea that the Mary James took for the last time Sunday night.